Granger Arthur

Granger Arthur (1803-) was an American wagon train leader during the 19th century. He led wagon trains for decades, never taking time to settle down or start a family; for several years, Billy Knapp was his co-leader, although Knapp eventually decided that he wanted to settle down. In 1873, Knapp told Arthur that he would retire to Oregon with Alice Longabaugh after they married. A day after Knapp's proposal to Longabaugh, however, Longabaugh went off by herself after hearing her missing dog barking, and Arthur was dispatched to return her to the wagon train. Before he could do so, a Sioux raiding party appeared, and Arthur gave Longabaugh a pistol and told her to shoot herself if he was killed, as the natives would capture and rape her if she was taken alive. Arthur used a rifle to repel two waves of natives, but he had to play dead in order to ambush and kill a warrior who had knocked him over. Arthur killed the warrior, but he then realized that Longabaugh had followed his instructions and shot herself, as she believed that Arthur had been killed. Arthur was then left with the impossible task of telling Knapp what had happened.